Ukraine Drone Attacks on Russia Kill 4 05/18 06:24

   

   KYIV, Ukraine (AP) -- One of Ukraine's largest drone strikes on Russia 
killed at least four people, including three near Moscow, and wounded a dozen 
others, local authorities said Sunday. Debris fell on Russia's largest airport 
without causing damage.

   Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy confirmed the drone strikes, saying 
that they were "entirely justified." Russia has repeatedly launched similar 
attacks on Ukraine's capital and other cities during the war, and an expert 
said that the strikes appeared to be retaliation for recent Russian attacks on 
Kyiv.

   Russian drone strikes on Ukraine overnight wounded eight people, Ukrainian 
authorities said.

   In Ukraine's strikes on Russia, a woman was killed after a drone hit her 
home in Khimki, a Russian city just northwest of Moscow, and two men died in 
the village of Pogorelki, which is 10 kilometers (6 miles) north of the 
capital, according to local Gov. Andrei Vorobyev.

   Ukrainian drones had also damaged unspecified "infrastructure" and several 
high-rise buildings, Vorobyev said on social media.

   One man was also killed after a drone struck a truck in the Belgorod region, 
which borders Ukraine, according to local authorities.

   In Moscow itself, at least 12 people were wounded in the nighttime strike, 
mostly near the entrance to the city's oil refinery, mayor Sergei Sobyanin 
reported. Sobyanin reported that the "technology" of the refinery hadn't been 
damaged.

   Hours later, the Indian Embassy in Moscow reported that an Indian worker 
died in a drone strike "in (the) Moscow region," while three other Indian 
nationals were hospitalized with injuries. It wasn't immediately clear whether 
the worker was one of the three people reported dead by Moscow region 
officials, or a further fatality.

   Russia's largest airport -- Moscow's Sheremetyevo -- said that drone debris 
had fallen on its grounds without causing damage or affecting flights.

   Russian defenses shot down 81 drones headed for Moscow overnight, state 
agency Tass reported, citing Sobyanin, marking one of the largest attacks on 
the city since Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24, 
2022.

   Russian air defenses overnight destroyed 556 drones over Russia, the 
occupied Crimean Peninsula and the Azov and Black Seas, the Russian Defense 
Ministry said Sunday morning. Shortly after midday local time, it reported that 
more than 1,000 drones had been shot down or jammed in the previous 24 hours.

   Zelenskyy said that the drones had flown more than 500 kilometers (310 
miles) from Ukrainian territory, and that Ukraine was "overcoming" Russian air 
defense systems concentrated in and around the capital.

   "Our responses to Russia's prolongation of the war and attacks on our cities 
and communities are entirely justified. This time, Ukrainian long-distance 
sanctions have reached the Moscow region, and we are clearly telling the 
Russians: their state must end its war," Zelenskyy said.

   Revenge for Russian attacks, expert says

   Nigel Gould Davies, senior fellow for Russia and Eurasia at the 
International Institute for Strategic Studies, a London-based think tank, said 
that Ukraine's large-scale attack appeared to be "the retaliation or revenge 
that President Zelenskyy promised after the fierce attacks that Russia carried 
out on Kyiv."

   Those strikes came immediately after the end of a brief ceasefire that 
allowed Russia to hold its annual Victory Day parade on May 9 commemorating the 
Soviet victory over Nazi Germany during World War II.

   Russia and Ukraine accused each other of repeatedly violating the pause in 
hostilities.

   "It brings home the fact Ukraine has the capacity to strike at very 
significant scale at or around the Russian capital," taking the war home to 
Russians in a way that would be "most unwelcome" to the Kremlin, Gould Davies 
told The Associated Press.

   "There is no ongoing peace process to disrupt. What (the attack) is more 
likely to do is add to the darkening cloud of anxiety over Russia which has 
developed palpably over the last three or four months," he said.

   He cited a combination of factors, including Russia's recent battlefield 
setbacks, a deteriorating economic situation at home, and the Kremlin's 
intensifying crackdown on the internet, including in Moscow and Russia's 
second-largest city, St. Petersburg.

   "The fact that Ukraine is reminding the Moscow population that it is 
vulnerable to these attacks is likely to intensify the mix of concerns now," 
Gould Davies said. "I see no prospect though, in the shorter term, that even 
these factors together will induce Russia to consider the compromises that will 
be necessary for peace negotiations."

   Ukrainian drones are also flying deep into Russia to strike oil facilities, 
sending up plumes of smoke that can be seen from space and bringing toxic rain 
to tourist destinations on the Black Sea. The attacks are aimed at slashing 
Moscow's oil exports, a key source of funding for Russia's grinding invasion of 
Ukraine.

   While their the economic impact is so far unclear -- as the rise in oil 
prices from the Iran war, and a related easing of U.S. sanctions, have helped 
replenish the Kremlin's coffers -- the range of the strikes and their 
environmental impact is bringing the war home to ordinary Russians far from the 
front lines.

   8 wounded in Russian drone strikes on Ukraine

   Russia attacked Ukraine with 287 drones overnight into Sunday, 279 of which 
were shot down or jammed, the Ukrainian air force reported.

   The strikes wounded 8 people in Ukraine's central Dnipropetrovsk region: 
three in the regional capital of Dnipro, four in President Volodymyr 
Zelenskyy's hometown of Kryvyi Rih, and one in the district of Synelkove, 
Ukraine's state emergency service said.

   Residential buildings were damaged in all three locations, the service said.